American diarist and suffragette Ellen Birdseye Wheaton one wrote, “All my scattering moments are taken up with my needle.”

Van Wyck seamstress Janie Straight knows that truth first hand.

A self-professed former hippie in 1970s California who has worked as a waitress, journalist, typesetter and sign painter (to name a few), Straight, 56, left the chaotic world of Los Angeles and settled in South Carolina with husband, Dennis, 16 years ago.